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MEP run on home heating oil?

Isaac-1

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Depending on location there is some truth to all this, I have a friend that worked in the quality control lab at a major refinery back in the 90's and over the years I learned a lot about gasoline, etc. from him. At the time he was there the whole RFG gasoline transition was going on with numerous RFG (reformulated gasoline blends being produced for emissions reasons). Everyone there HATED making RFG because the blend had to much more precise than traditional gasoline, and different markets had different blend requirements, at one time I think they were producing something like 17 different blends of RFG depending on what market it was being shipped to. RFG for the Houston TX market was a completely different blend than RFG for the Florida market, etc. Also making traditional gasoline is not like many of us imagine it to be, it is not this perfect blend of ingredients, instead it more like making spaghetti sauce from scratch with only a rough recipe guideline, too saltly, add a pinch of this, too sweet a pinch of that, too thin, too thick, etc. In the case of gasoline it is more like ooops we got the Octane rating off, pump in some butane. (this is the reason why in the old days you may recall sometime gasoline at the pump would smell stronger or weaker from batch to batch). By contrast modern gasoline blends are a lot less tolerant to such blending errors as there are fewer things they can do to reblend and fix mistakes and still meet the specs. At this time (pre ULSD Diesel) I know that Diesel, Kerosene, etc. was generally treated much less stringently than gasoline and therefore much easier to blend, basically if the viscosity was right, it was good. Still they made mistakes with everything, and some of them he told me about were BIG, refineries reuse / reblend everything they can, so even if a blend is perfect they may mix in a little of an off blend batch to dispose of it and what they can't tends to get burned off in their flares, and often the things they should not be burning get burned off in the early morning hours. (go drive by any refinery and watch all the interesting flare colors during the early morning hours, hmmm how do you get a purple flame 40 feet tall....). One of the more memorable mistake he told me about that got caught a bit too late involved a summer engineering intern that made a math mistake blending RFG, and ended up putting 10 times too much of something into the blend. The short description he gave me of this incident when it happened was, we sent 3 million gallons of RFG to Florida in the pipeline and 3 million gallons came back.

Ike
 

johnray13

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Chantilly, Va
When I called my fuel supplier, Southern States, I asked if there was any difference in their HHO and off road diesel. They said it was the exact same stuff. The only difference (in my case) was I had to pay Virginia sales tax on the fuel if it were for a generator (no sales tax if I were using it as heating oil)

The best way to know for sure is to call the company you are buying it from.

John
 

jimbo913

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I have been running heating oil for years. Now I have some kerosene (70g) and was curious about mixing it with HH oil but unsure the safe ratio. Is anyone familiar with the jet fuels listed as safe fuels for mep’s? I would think that Kerosene is close in viscosity and flash point of the jet fuels and the injectors wouldn’t mind it??
 

Poccur

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Roanoke, VA
I'm interested in purchasing an MEP-003a for backup power for my home. My primary motivation for upgrading from my portable 5kW gasoline generator (besides higher capacity) is that I typically have between 100-500 gallons of fuel oil on site for heating, and the ideal location for the generator happens to be just a few feet from the storage tank. I always assumed that a diesel engine would run fine on heating oil, but while researching gensets I found information that says otherwise.

Home Heating Oil & Your Diesel Generator

"If you use #2 heating oil in your generator, you are at risk of causing serious damage. Using #2 home heating oil will void any manufactures warranty. Some of the first problems users encounter is damaged fuel pumps, fuel injectors and engine glazing."

So what's the deal? Will heating oil cause problems in a MEP-003a? Would I be better off running diesel motor fuel from a primary tank and using heating oil as backup only?

Thanks in advance, I've already learned a lot from lurking around here the past several days.
I would run it. Your generator is built to run on JP8 all day and that is low lubrication fuel ,so much so, they add lubricity enhancers but you still need a hardened injector pump to handle it. Your gen should find #2 heating oil a positive 'treat' compared to JP8...
Additionally, you could (not saying you should, just you could) buy a house heating oil tank, put it beside the house then put your generator nearby but out of sight. They do not need to know the oil is not being used for heating...help keep the price down with no tax...
 
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Guyfang

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I have been running heating oil for years. Now I have some kerosene (70g) and was curious about mixing it with HH oil but unsure the safe ratio. Is anyone familiar with the jet fuels listed as safe fuels for mep’s? I would think that Kerosene is close in viscosity and flash point of the jet fuels and the injectors wouldn’t mind it??
On the side of your gen set, and in the TM, is a list of fuels that the military has decided can be used in that set. You might take a look.
 

jimbo913

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I know what the manual states and it doesn’t state Kerosene but I read that JP8 was kerosene based. I thought someone might have more knowledge of aviation fuels similarity to Kerosene heating fuel. The purpose of my question was more related to a long-term grid down situation “alternative” fuels.
The exact quote I found on the web “The JP-8 is a kerosene which contains additives with the objective of improving its properties for military use”. I have also heard of people mixing some in Kerosene with diesel in really cold weather as anti-gel but unsure how much.
 

Poccur

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Roanoke, VA
I know what the manual states and it doesn’t state Kerosene but I read that JP8 was kerosene based. I thought someone might have more knowledge of aviation fuels similarity to Kerosene heating fuel. The purpose of my question was more related to a long-term grid down situation “alternative” fuels.
The exact quote I found on the web “The JP-8 is a kerosene which contains additives with the objective of improving its properties for military use”. I have also heard of people mixing some in Kerosene with diesel in really cold weather as anti-gel but unsure how much.
Remember, you opened the bottle on the fuel genie bottle...seriously, you will get a lot of opinions...here is one...
JP-8 is something like 99.6% kerosene...they add a lubricity enhancer and a freeze inhibitor to take it down to -53 (or so) and an anti-static additive so no sparks during fueling....
A lot of engine manuals say not jet fuel at all but if you add a hardened injection pump the problem is resolved. If you have a MEPS it has been run on JP-8, likely JP-5 and I would not worry too awfully much about feeding it jet fuel or heating oil...
Now if it was a modern Tier 4 final engine, yes it would be a concern....but a MEPS? Run that sucker....
 

Light in the Dark

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Home heating oil is #2 with a blended amount of kerosene for its antigelling properties. Best to add a heavy dose of a lubricity agent, only if you care about the fuel delivery components. It will just make the parts last longer. I would dose the onboard tank, as it refills.
 

Ray70

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Side note... running on Kero, or any of the JP / JET options will likely result in a smoother running, easier starting ( especially in cold weather ) generator, but theoretically you should expect a slight decrease in KW output.
Kero has less BTU's / Gl than #2 diesel and #2 HHO, therefore you will get a little less power out of the engine.
The Kero based options are also substantially more expensive than #2, unless you have a secret source!
I run #2 HHO with some added lubricant and OptiLube XPD fuel conditioner in EVERYTHING I have that is diesel and not used on-road.
 

jimbo913

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Maryland
Thanks to everyone who replied. I definitely feel more comfortable using the kerosene up if needed. BTW, I got the 70 gal for free from a friend who had no use for it. It is red dyed and I am not 100% positive it’s kero but I think it is because it does light just slightly easier than red diesel and feels like there is slightly less lubricity on the fingers.
I will plan to order some optilube xpd but if anyone has cheaper alternatives and ratios, I would love to hear them.
 

Ray70

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There's dozens of other additives available, but another SS member had once posted the results of an independent test that showed the Optilube had the highest lubricity of treated fuel, where as adding Marvel mystery oil to it actually decreased lubricity somehow!
I would be nice to find that report and see what else rated near the top of the scale.
I grabbed 2 bottles off Amazon which will last me many years.
There are tons of other options available at your local parts store as well, Howes Diesel Treat, Power Service Diesel 911 , Pri-D
you can even throw in some 2 stroke oil, transmission fluid or even hydraulic oil. Anything will be better than nothing and everyone will have their own opinion on what they think is best....
 

jimbo913

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Maryland
There's dozens of other additives available, but another SS member had once posted the results of an independent test that showed the Optilube had the highest lubricity of treated fuel, where as adding Marvel mystery oil to it actually decreased lubricity somehow!
I would be nice to find that report and see what else rated near the top of the scale.
I grabbed 2 bottles off Amazon which will last me many years.
There are tons of other options available at your local parts store as well, Howes Diesel Treat, Power Service Diesel 911 , Pri-D
you can even throw in some 2 stroke oil, transmission fluid or even hydraulic oil. Anything will be better than nothing and everyone will have their own opinion on what they think is best....
This is probably the link https://shopspeedhouse.com/blog/opti-lube-xpd-fuel-additive-review-and-comparison/
 

Ray70

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Essentially the same test results, just published by Optilube and not the actual independent test lab report by the looks.
It sounds like the Optilube will pay for itself in fuel savings.... ;) but as you can see they also list the price / 26Gl tank that the others would cost and there are cheaper alternatives, but their performance is also lower.
Interesting that adding used motor oil had almost no increase in lubricity and that others made it worse....
 

Coug

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There's dozens of other additives available, but another SS member had once posted the results of an independent test that showed the Optilube had the highest lubricity of treated fuel, where as adding Marvel mystery oil to it actually decreased lubricity somehow!
I would be nice to find that report and see what else rated near the top of the scale.
I grabbed 2 bottles off Amazon which will last me many years.
There are tons of other options available at your local parts store as well, Howes Diesel Treat, Power Service Diesel 911 , Pri-D
you can even throw in some 2 stroke oil, transmission fluid or even hydraulic oil. Anything will be better than nothing and everyone will have their own opinion on what they think is best....
It might have been me, since I know I've linked it a few times.

the Spicer test from 2007.

Personally I'm running optilube XL not the XPD as it's the same price but treats twice as much. XL is just for lubrication, XPD has antigel, water control, cetane, and cleaners in it. They also make a couple other versions for either warm weather or cold, but as it rarely gets to the 20's around here I don't need much more.
 
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